Heat on spinners as Proteas’ fast bowlers continue to misfire

Getting smashed for more than 100 runs in the first 10 overs of an ODI is a deeply unpleasant experience.

That it happened twice to the Proteas, in the second and third ODIs against Australia, as part of a wider sequence of poor bowling performances, means that while Tuesday night’s win in Potchefstroom was uplifting, there is plenty to concern the coaching staff.

Temba Bavuma acknowledged the power play did not unfold as the Proteas wanted. Though the seam bowling component of the attack shared only 24 ODI caps between them, Bavuma still wasn’t happy. 

“The experience of the seam bowlers is not an excuse. The guys have had a proper sighter with regards to [how Australia play] and maybe other [teams] will do the same as well. 

“You need to learn as quickly as you can,” the Proteas captain said.

He is right. Opposition teams at the World Cup will play no heed to age or the number of matches the Proteas have played. And as Tuesday showed, the first power play — when only two fielders are allowed on the boundary — will be the best time to attack against the hard new balls. 

Later in the innings, as the balls scuffed up and softened, the spinners were able to find purchase off a dry surface, making scoring a lot harder. 

It was the kind of conditions expected in India, especially later in the tournament. 

In the past two matches of the series, the Australians have posted 102/0 and 104/1 in the first 10 overs, with 172 of those 206 runs coming in boundaries. While the intent from David Warner and Travis Head has been exceptional, SA’s bowling has been the opposite. 

After the second ODI Warner said the tourists took advantage of a number of freebies on offer. 

“We will have a conversation about the power play to see how best we can navigate ourselves around there,” Bavuma said.

The inability to execute has been mentioned ad nauseam, and between them Sisanda Magala, playing his first proper match in five months, Marco Jansen and, in that initial spell, Gerald Coetzee, all struggled to exert any semblance of control. 

Thankfully conditions were in the Proteas’ favour, with the dry surface coming to their aid, after they had selected both front-line spinners, Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj.

“It was proper game-changing stuff from them in two spells,” said Aiden Markram.

“We are blessed to have really good quicks, but it’s also about adapting to conditions and understanding in which conditions your quicks will win you games and your spinners perform a controlling role.

“And then you get conditions like this [on Tuesday], where the spinners will win the games and the seamers can chip in and keep control of the rate.”

Except the seamers didn’t do that, at least not until Coetzee mopped up Australia’s tail. Jansen and Magala both conceded more than 10 runs an over and it needed Maharaj and Shamsi to reassert control by taking wickets. 

The Proteas believe Indian conditions for the most part will be good for batting, with the ICC keen on seeing a batting spectacle. That eight of SA’s nine round-robin matches will be day/night affairs means they also have to be wary of the effects of dew in a cooler period of the year in that country that will make the ball difficult to grip.

So the selectors throwing their lot in with fast bowling is understandable, but then it needs those fast bowlers to produce the basics better than they have for most of both series against Australia. 

It was in Coetzee’s second spell that a better plan emerged — to target the stumps — with two of his four wickets being bowled.

“They will have to dovetail well,” Markram said of the seamers and spinners.

“They [the bowlers] have been under a bit of pressure but it hasn’t been for a lack of trying or planning. They will also be relieved to put together a bowling performance like that as a unit.”